Deep Dive: References in ‘Gundam Build Divers’ Episode 22

Deep Dive is a weekly column by Gundam expert Tom Aznable that points out the more unexpected aspects of the Gundam multiverse that make it into Gundam Build Divers. Nothing passes Tom’s eagle eye, but this column focuses specifically on rare sightings and deep cuts. Read on to see what you may have missed.

Leading off this episode’s cameo-packed last few minutes, the GINN Ceremonial Decoration Type is a non-combat variant of ZAFT’s grunt mainstay MS GINN. In the middle of this group, we have the Guntank II: a successor to the Guntank that shrugged off its predecessor’s vestigial super robot aesthetics and leaned fully into becoming a military vehicle. On the right, the long-range transformable Titans suit Gabthley is sporting the custom colors from its most recent variation from the Advance of Zeta novels.

Hidden away in the back on the far left, the Gable comes from a story arc in Gundam X that features a bunch of one-off, highly specialized super mobile suits. The Gable’s specialty is incredibly high defense between its physical armor and beam deflection field.

The largest mobile suit in this group is the Choukidou Daishogun in its anime debut. This Daishogun is shown here in its real-proportion mode, but it can also transform into an SD mode, mobile fortress mode, castle mode, and phoenix mode.

Right below the Daishogun is a mobile suit that actually has never had an official name. This MS appeared briefly in Hayato Kobayashi’s Kennedy Space Museum in Zeta Gundam, and has been speculated to be a Gundam-ized version of the Walker Gallia from Xabungle.

A side note: this is the second time the Jenice Kai “Slash Buffalo” has shown up in Build Divers, the last time being during a montage of Ayame’s old force being defeated. Maybe this is the same player!

On the far left is a Daughtress High Mobility “Fire Wallaby”, a variant of the United Nations Earth’s Daughtress mobile suit that is equipped with a hover system and flamethrower. To its right is Gavane Goonny’s Borjarnon, a Zaku I-like mobile suit from Turn A Gundam that showed up earlier in Build Divers in typical Zaku colors.

Gundam X seems to be pretty popular on GBN. In the lower left is the New United Nations Earth’s successor to the Daughtress, the flying mobile suit Balient. Above it is Gundam X’s stand-in for an Elmeth or Qubeley-like mobile suit, the Space Revolutionary Army’s Newtype-use Bertigo. Gundam X’s premise is basically a post-apocalyptic what-if scenario inspired by the One Year War, and it’s unique among Gundam alternate universes for explicitly having Newtypes, just like the Universal Century (not counting SEED, which uses classic audiovisual cues but never actually uses the term in-show).

Another Gundam X cameo! The mean green Grandeene (sorry) hidden in the back is the Space Revolutionary Army’s mobile armor that falls somewhere between Zeon’s Adzam and Big Zam. While the Space Revolutionary Army’s mobile suit model numbers allude to what Zeon MS they’re stand-ins for, the Grandeene actually shares its model number with the Val Walo mobile armor from Gundam 0083.